A lesson from the failure of the U.S.

                            

By Mustafa ABD RAHMAN

Although already 10 years passed, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was launched on March 20, 2003 remains a polemical material inexhaustible, either in the domestic U.S. and in many other countries. Appears pros and cons strongly against the invasion.

Kubu counter called the U.S. invasion of Iraq brought great calamity. The pro said the U.S. invasion was a necessity to end the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad.

However, all analysts, both pro and con, to admit, the price to be paid from the invasion is very expensive. In fact, until the attitude of remorse.

Cost of the U.S. invasion of Iraq reached 770 billion U.S. dollars. The death toll from the approximately 116,000 Iraqi civilians, 20,000 soldiers and police, and 19,000 militia. As many as 4488 troops and 179 British soldiers killed in Iraq.

Pro-invasion faction in the U.S., often called neoconservative groups, often argued, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was a series of wars against terrorism that began terrorist attacks on New York and Washington DC, 11 September 2001.

The neoconservatives in the circle group fronted by U.S. President George W. Bush when it was Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Director of the World Bank and former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

neoconservative group is linked with the pretext of the war against terrorists of weapons of mass destruction, according to them, owned by Saddam Hussein's regime.

According to their perception, dangerous weapons of mass destruction must be kept out of the hands of dangerous anyway because every moment could be used for terrorist purposes. Therefore, according to their logic flow, the war against Saddam Hussein's regime is a must to destroy weapons of mass destruction.

The neoconservatives also believe that, if Saddam's regime was overthrown, it could be the door to the creation of the Middle East region more stable and even pave the way for the establishment of a democratic system in the region.

strong real War

Saddam's regime in Baghdad was easily overthrown by the machine U.S. military in just about two weeks since the invasion began.

U.S. recognized easily have won the battle against the Iraqi army. However, many observers and officials at that time gave a stern warning to the U.S. that the real war actually begins after the collapse of Saddam's regime.

U.S. with excessive confidence ignoring the warning. U.S. confidence is reflected from the first decision the U.S. authorities in Iraq, Paul Bremer, ordered the dissolution of all state institutions of Iraq, including the Iraqi armed forces. Bremer then rebuild Iraq from the beginning.

Decision at a later date that is believed to be the biggest mistake in Iraq that continues to have an impact to this day. The decision will be costly for the superpower.

Bremer, in an interview with the Arabic newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat , some time ago, that decision was wrong.

Wolfowitz, in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Telegraph , the Sunday (17/03/2013), also admitted that the U.S. did a lot of mistakes in Iraq so there was a wave of violence controlled.

According to Wolfowitz, among major U.S. mistake in Iraq was dissolving the Iraqi armed forces, failed to predict the level of resistance of post-collapse of the Saddam regime, and the U.S. immediately took control with Bremer appointed as ruler in Iraq.

After that decision, the situation in Iraq soon became anarchy. The violence that happens almost every day is like a chain that was never broken. Almost every day there are U.S. soldiers in Iraq were killed by attacks across Iraq.

Anyone who is friend and foe become confused in Iraq. Here and there appears resistance movement with different names. Al Qaeda was rushed into Iraq to take advantage of the situation was chaotic. The former members of the Iraqi army was trained allegedly had joined the resistance movements against the U.S. occupation forces.

Strong Exacerbating the situation

U.S. political system built Iraq also assessed contributed to the situation in the country. Because the political system is based on ethnic sentiments and religious sects. Thus, political parties were born in the post-Saddam era disaggregated between Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds.

Pattern is not limited to inter-party competition in the political arena, but also touching sentiment among Sunni and Shiite sects or Arabs and Kurds.

Ironically, competition or conflict between groups in Iraq are not resolved through dialogue, but violence. The violence that occurred was often raised by Iraq's political elite, and not least against the backdrop of sentiment or sectarian schools.

Former U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace, Dennis Ross, told the daily Asharq al-Awsat Monday edition (18/3), said the lessons learned from Iraq was regime change should be done from within the country concerned, can not be imposed from outside.

The passage of time more and more shows, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was a catastrophe. Moreover, weapons of mass destruction were a pretext invasion was never found until this moment.